Gong Wah are a trip. A trip back to the mid 60’ with stops in the 90’s and 70’s on the way wearing cocktail dresses, floaty kilts, dark shades and plaid shirts. This Cologne collective mix-up grunge, shoegaze and psychedelia with some New Wave spirit and classic rock swagger.
The opening bars of “Let’s Get Lost” sound like Mudhoney covering Doll Parts by Hole before Inga Nelke’s sultry vocal kicks in and a groovy garage seduction in aural form begins. The swirling fuzzed up guitars of Thirsten Dohle and Felix Will are in charge of the sonic allure, writhing their strings round each other like velvet snakes. This is pure paisley patterned day-glo, love in luxury.
Bassist Giso Simon and drummer Nima Davari keep the pulse going and anchor me to reality.
Nelke’s vocals are reminiscent of Marijne van der Vlugt from Salad, clean, precise but with just the right amount of bite and nuanced venom. Supersized Kid is a great example of this – it’s like a jazzy lounge track emanating from a 60’s Parisian café but with hand on hip and a Black Sabbath shirt. With Him stays in the late 60’s but moves over to the US with a desert stroll alongside the Velvets.
It’s not all twirly swirly though. I Hate You is a proper garage rock tune that you could twist or mosh to. (My buddy Mupps always judges how good a song is by whether you can twist to it). Single Sugar and Lies is Suzi Quatro meets Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats. Fingers in bellbottom waists, hair swinging and lava lamps on. How can you not love a song with hand claps? You’ll be singing “Sweet sweet sugar and lies” along with Inga whilst twirling about your covid-19 lockbox before you know it.
Contaminated Concrete that follows evokes Portishead without the beats and Bond themes and Not This Time is similar but with a dance bop behind it. It could have gone a little Moloko but there is enough going on in the rhythm section and some gnarly electronics that keep it the right side of fey indie pop.
Just Sayin’ starts with a screech of electronics that sounds like a Ford Cortina sliding into a pile of boxes near a dodgy lock up before a languid rhythm kicks in. It’s got the cutlery in a tray beat of “Metal Gods” and the swagger of vodka fuelled lothario or female equivalent. Delightfully decadent.
Gong Wah are the right side of arty and the right side of pop with enough rock and roll vigour to bridge the gap. The Bondesque tracks are a little too meandering but can be forgiven when the rest is so luxurious.
(7.5/10 Matt Mason)
Leave a Reply